It’s easy to run out and pick a new indoor plant, then select a cute pot that matches your home decor, and put them together in your home. But what if the kind of pot you’ve chosen isn’t quite right for the plant you’ve put in it? You could end up with root rot, or your plant could shrivel up and die from being too dry.
General Things to Consider Before Choosing Houseplant Pots
Here are a few tips for choosing the right kind of pot for a few popular indoor plants. You often see indoor plants sorted by their light needs, but it’s more important to consider their water needs, the climate in your home, and your watering and care habits when it comes to pot choice.
"Non-porous pots will be better for plants that need to be watered more regularly and prefer to have consistently moist soil."
How Dry Is The Air In Your Home?
If the air in your home is quite dry (this is pretty common in winter), you may need to use pots that help retain more moisture or adjust your watering schedule to be more frequent.
How Often Do You Usually Water Your Houseplants?
Are you the kind of person that’s checking your plants every couple of days, and you always feel like you should be watering them? Then you might want to keep more of your plants in porous pots, so the water evaporates faster.
Do you forget to water your plants until it looks like some of them are about to keel over? Then you might want to consider non-porous pots, so your plants can tolerate a little longer of a wait between waterings.
How Much Water Does Each Type Of Houseplant Need?
This ties into your watering habits as well. If you have plants that need consistently moist soil, you should probably keep them in non-porous pots so that they don’t dry out too fast. Great examples of these types of pots are glazed ceramics, plastic, or metal. You should also adjust your water schedule to make sure they don’t get too dry.
If you have plants like cacti or succulents that prefer their soil on the dry side, then you should probably keep them in pots made from porous materials like terra cotta, unglazed ceramics, or concrete.
The most important part of choosing pots is to consider drainage. Pots with drainage holes are better than pots without. You can make pots without drainage holes work well by keeping your plants in plastic nursery pots. This allows you to water and then check in about half an hour later to see if the plant is sitting in water and dumping out the excess. It’s also a good idea to leave your plants in their nursery pots for at least a few weeks after you bring them home, so they can adjust to their environment without the added stress of being transplanted.
Here are some common houseplants, sorted by water needs, so you can choose the appropriate type of pot to help them maintain their preferred moisture levels.
Low Water Needs Plants
Generally speaking, if your plant has thick succulent-type leaves or large water retaining trunks (think ponytail palms), they’ll do best in a porous container that allows the soil around the roots to dry out thoroughly before the next watering. Plants that do well in this kind of container include:
- Peperomia
- Echeveria
- Haworthia
- Hoya
- Ponytail Palms
- Sago Palms
- Snake Plants
- ZZ Plant
- Aloe Vera
- Cast Iron Plant
Moderate Water Needs Plants
Non-porous pots will be better for plants that need to be watered more regularly and prefer to have consistently moist soil. If you want to put your plant directly into the pot, then make sure to choose pots with drainage holes, as they still don’t want to sit in water and get root rot. If you love a pot, but it doesn’t have a drainage hole, keep your plant in the plastic nursery pot, and make sure to lift it out and check for excess water about half an hour after you’ve watered. Dump any excess water. Plants that do well in this kind of container include:
- Schefflera
- Monstera
- Money Tree
- Ficus
- Chinese Evergreens
- Philodendron
- Pothos
- Anthuriums
- Spider Plants
- Chinese Money Plant
You can still plant many of these plants in porous pots if you prefer the look, but you’ll need to increase the frequency of your watering.
High Water Needs & High Maintenance Plants
Plants that need frequent watering, high humidity levels, and are just generally more complicated to care for will usually do best in non-porous pots. Since these plants can be finicky about how much water they want, it’s still a good idea to plant them in a plastic nursery pot and then put them inside a more decorative pot. Non-porous materials like plastic, metal, glazed ceramics, resin, or fiberglass are common options. It’s still a good idea to choose pots with a drainage hole, or choose pots that have a self-watering reservoir, and keep an eye on these to make sure they’re not sitting in a puddle of water. Plants that are more high maintenance include:
- Ferns
- Fittonia
- Polka Dot Plants
- Peace Lily
- Maranta
- Calathea
- African Mask
Whatever type of container you need for your different houseplants, you’ll be able to find it in our collection. Just keep in mind that generally speaking, you should only go up one or two pot sizes when you’re repotting houseplants.